Tag Archives: near field communication

At Tacitfy we make mobile marketing simple. Connecting traditional marketing materials like posters and flyers with mobile can create highly engaging campaigns and drive results for brands. By allowing users to interact with mobile apps or webpages, your brand can provide more information and relevant content. Having well-designed physical materials, apps and websites with content that is engaging and relevant to your users are key factors to a successful mobile marketing campaign.

We worked with Capital Training Institute (CTI) to build a mobile marketing campaign for the South Sydney Rabbitoh’s members weekend campaign. CTI is a Registered Training Organization (RTO) and the official membership partner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs national rugby team. Their goals were to increase brand recognition, direct users to enter the Grand Final VIP ticket competition and encourage user generated content on social media with the hashtag #trainlikesamin reference to the Rabbitoh’s team captain.

To engage fans and drive them to the Grand Final ticket draw, we created custom Sharetapes that were handed out during Australia’s popular “The Footy Show” and printed Sam Burgess face masks equipped with QR codes to be distributed on game day. The QR codes (and banner advertisements) drove users to a special microsite where fans could enter the competition, stream a customer Spotify playlist and view more information on CTI.

The microsite received over 1,000 unique visitors and hundreds of entries for the Grand Final ticket draw. The hashtag #trainlikesam trended at number five on Twitter and was tagged on more than 430 posts on Instagram. By combining traditional marketing materials with mobile we were able to drive more user engagement and brand recognition for CTI and the South Sydney Robbitohs.

With Black Friday only a week away the holiday shopping madness will soon commence. Shopping this holiday season is projected to reach $72.4 billion! That’s $10 billion more than last year’s spending. For brands prepping their marketing and advertising, mobile and digital continue to play a huge role in influencing shopping and purchasing decisions. Check out these stats from Yahoo:

Half of holiday sales will be influenced by digital interactions

84 percent of shoppers use digital tools before or while shopping, and convert at a 40 percent higher rate

The ability to use mobile in marketing campaigns brings heaps of opportunities to increase retail sales. At Tactify, we believe that independent stores should be able to have campaigns that are as innovative and impactful as multinational stores. No matter the size of your store or staff, there are a number of ways to increase sales and expand your brand.

First off, there are huge benefits to incorporating mobile into your marketing campaigns. Almost two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone – and 55 percent of consumers who use coupons on their smartphone end up spending more money in store or online than they originally anticipated. A new study showed that mobile plays an integral part in the shopping experience of millennial moms– with a third saying mobile played a part in the inspiration and research part of shopping, and half saying they turned to their phones in-store to communicate with friends and family about their purchasing decisions.

So how can you increase your retails sales with mobile? Here are a few options:

Send push notifications using geofencingor beacon technologies to communicate with your customers based on their location.

Use NFC stickers or QR codes around the store offering coupons and reward points.

Reward customers who check in on social media and/or share their purchases with friends. Use NFC, QR and push notifications to make this even easier.

For iPhone users, integrate coupons and rewards cards with Passbook. Customers can easily save and access these on their phones (without a separate app) and eventually this will link to ApplePay.

Integrate your social media with coupons and rewards to redeem in-store or online.

Stay on top of the latest technologies like ApplePay to give customers the easiest and fastest check-out experience.

With any marketing campaign, make sure to use analytics to constantly evaluate and optimize your campaigns. Test which tactics get the most engagement with your customers and result in the highest ROI.

Marketers and advertisers have been using NFC quietly for the last few years. There have been some fun, innovative campaignsbut the use of NFC has really been limited to certain Android phones as well as payments and keyless entry. But that’s all about to change.

Applehas held out on enabling NFC in the iPhone due to lack of merchant interest and low-security, opting instead for Passbook. But due to the success of iBeacons and Apple’s access to 800 million credit cards from users’ iTunes accounts, reports have labelled NFC as inevitable for the iPhone.

Enabling NFC on the iPhone is more than just mass adoption of mobile payments. There are a ton of possibilities already being used that both consumers, marketers and technologists can make even more wide spread — quicker check-in at hotels using your mobile phone as a room key; controlling settings at home and work like lights, alarms and sounds; easily changing your phone settings based on location such as switching Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or music on and off; or even transferring files between two phones.

In order to fully take advantage of the possibilities with NFC, marketers and advertisers should fully understand their capabilities and how to use them. We’ll be at NFC Bootcamp in New York on September 18-19 presenting iBeacons and NFCs: Friends or Foes. Tactify co-founder Richard Dupe will discuss how to create campaigns using NFC and beacons as well as QR and geofences! Check out the NFC Bootcamp and register here. Use code “Tactify” for 20 percent off !

Has 2014 been the ‘year of mobile’? There has definitely been significant growth in mobile usage, app growth and technologies like beacons and geofences — but don’t expect to see any of these slow down in the next few years. At the beginning of 2014, 9 in 10 Americans owned a mobile phone, 60 percent owned a smartphone and mobile usage surpassed the PC. According to Nielsen, the average U.S. consumer spends 34 hours every month on mobile devices and owns four “smart” devices (smartphone, tablet, HDTV, PC, gaming console). We are connected 24/7.

With the plethora of data being produced and gathered across all these connected devices, businesses are just beginning to process the endless possibilities for creating more relevant content, products and information for mobile users. Smartphones are used for everything from shopping, messaging, booking travel, checking-in and consuming news and content. And whatever is not done on a smartphone is likely done on another connected device. The phase of making things “mobile” is over. The next phase? Understanding the data to create more relevant and personalized experiences.

Credit: Nielsen

1. Location and proximity targeting

With the growing popularity and usage of beacons, location is becoming a huge part of mobile strategies. Companies have been using geofencing for quite a few years to trigger certain actions on mobile. Beacons allow businesses to produce even more targeted content based on indoor locations. Getting ready to check into your flight? You might receive a notification telling you when to get your boarding pass and ID out.

2. Context and personalization

With accounts connected across a number of devices, businesses will be able to use data and technology to produce more personalized and context-aware content. Imagine walking into a retailer and receiving a message that the shirt you were saw online the night before is on sale and available in store. Smart devices and apps will be able to understand individual habits based on your device usage and data. Matched with location capabilities, consumers will be served not just relevant content but information relevant to that exact time.

3. Higher app engagement and more conversions

According to Flurry, smartphone owners are using app 86 percent of the time compared to mobile browsers. Most major retailers, airlines and brands have already released their own apps. Matching those with location-aware and personalized content will produce higher engagement and conversion rates. Providing coupons based on shopping lists, or events in an area based on travel plans will make apps more useful to consumers. For iPhone users, iOS 8 will suggest apps on the lock screen based on location. This will not only help consumers more easily open apps they need but will also increase awareness of apps and potentially increase downloads.

4. NFC takes hold

Near field communication (NFC) continues to grow in the market mostly due to payments. If Apple releases an NFC-compatible iPhone 6 this fall, there will likely be an increase in mobile payments and innovative uses for NFC in marketing campaigns, advertising, business cards, connected products and travel experiences.What other trends do you expect to take off in the next year?

NFC is not a new technology but it has been gaining traction in the market over the last few years due to NFC-enabled credit cards and mobile phones. There is speculation that Apple will finally adopt NFC in the iPhone 6 — at which point, NFC might reach widespread adoption among consumers. However, the NFC rumor mill hits every time a new iPhone is about to be released. Nonetheless, the number of NFC-enabled Android and Windows phones is growing, and with that, we have seen an increase in the ways brands and consumers are experimenting with the technology.

How does NFC work?

Getting down to basics, NFC, or near field communication, transmits data wirelessly between two objects equipped with NFC chips. The two objects have to be brought within close range, usually within four inches, in order to communicate and can transmit any information.

Is NFC just for payments?

No! Technically, you can use NFC as long as you have two NFC compatible objects. Brands have used NFC for ticketing at events or while traveling, opening car doors with NFC-enabled security badges and car keys, tracking healthcare information, and in marketing and advertising campaigns. It can be as simple as placed an NFC-enabled sticker within a retail area that links to coupons, rewards, ads or movie trailers, social media pages, mobile apps and more. NFC extends to personal use, too. Place an NFC sticker near your front door, wave or tap with it your phone and turn the air conditioning on. Trend Blog put together a great list of 18 creative ways to use NFC.

Will NFC keep growing?

Yes. The number of NFC compatible devices increased 128% from 2012 to 2013. IHS Technology predicts that two in three devices will be NFC compatible by 2018. Plus, VISA Europe saw their contactless payments increase four fold in 2013. While brands are starting to experiment with beacons, NFC still has its own specific use and purpose. It’s cheaper and works within a much more specific location than beacons.

What’s the security like?

NFC only works within a close range — usually four inches or less — and the signals are very specific. In order for a hacker to get a hold of your information, they would have to be extremely close to your phone or credit card. In addition, any data stored on your phone like credit card information is encrypted and usually has a number of added security features like pins and passwords. Get a full explanation of NFC security here.

Bottom line, NFC is here to stay but there are a multitude of other technologies disrupting the space. When it comes to designing a marketing or advertising campaign, make sure to consider your goals, budget and customers when deciding which one to use.